Where Priorities Lie
by WatchMeSoar
Summary: Chuck brought Gabriel back after He left with Amara, figuring the boys could se some help. But Gabriel has a little bit of catching up to do, first.


**A/n: Here. Just a little something because I had forty minutes to kill.**

 **This is unrelated to any of my work thus far—it's just a 'missing scene,' if you will, if Chuck had found the time to bring Gabriel back after that whole mess with Amara. Cassie has done some questionable things in the time Gabriel has been gone, which is why Gabe might be a but OOC.**

 **I own nothing.**

III

Gabriel slowly withdrew his fingers from Castiel's forehead, eyes wide and unseeing. The bunker was dead silent, all eyes tracking the archangel. Gabriel drew in a shaky, unnecessary breath and forcefully relaxed his shoulders.

"Well," he said, "looks like you've been busy, little bro."

Castiel, whose eyes had been fixed on Gabriel, quickly looked down at his scuffed shoes. In a low voice, he said, "Gabriel…Brother, I—"

Gabriel waved his hand vaguely and turned his back to his audience. As went silent once again. The archangel and trickster, usually so full of life and personality, stood perfectly, unnaturally still.

The touch had briefed him on everything that had happened between his death and when his Father had drudged up the time to bring him back. So much had happened. So many of his family were gone. The Fall, Michael, Lucifer, Raphael…Castiel.

He turned back around, assessing the company he had in the bunker; Cassie, Sam, Dean, and Mary, who evidently had more precedence to be there than Gabriel did himself. At that moment, however, only one of them was immediately important and it wasn't any of the humans.

" _Castiel,_ " he spoke in Enochian, " _what have you done?_ "

Castiel said and did nothing for a moment, hesitating. Then he knelt.

The Winchesters were startled, shifting from foot to foot, and Mary let out a soft gasp. Castle kept his eyes on the floor and Gabriel regarded his little brother.

" _Brother,_ " Cas said, then thought better of it, " _Archangel Gabriel, I know not how to explain my actions, nor how to ask for forgiveness, from you or from the Father. I don't deserve it._ " He ducked his head lower, palms on the ground. " _I accept your judgement._ "

The Winchesters held their breath, and Dean made half a step in Castiel's direction before Sam stopped him with a hand on his arm.

Gabriel, for a long and contemplative moment, simply looked as his little brother. He exuded not the air of cockiness and mischief that were familiar to the Winchesters, but a posture of fathomless knowledge, power, and pain that only Castiel could really understand.

Gabriel remembered every sibling he had lost. And in his mind's eye, he'd moments ago watched Castiel kill Raphael and Balthazar with his own hands, among many others, and that pained him beyond what he thought he could bare. But as well as he could see Cas's actions, he could also see his heart. the thing that had killed so many of the Host of Heaven was borne of desperation and good intentions, but was nothing holy. Castiel, he knew, was little more than a fledgeling with no one to link him to his home above, no one who could truly understand.

Gabriel was familiar with the feeling.

Remaining where he was, Gabriel tentatively reached out to his brother's grace with his own. Castiel jerked in surprise, or maybe fright, but then he looked up at his brother in confusion.

Gabriel then knelt down before him, raising the younger's hands from the floor and placing a hand on Cas's shoulder.

" _Brother,_ " he said, " _I have lost too many from my family._ " As Castiel began to lower his eyes again, pulling back, Gabriel shook his shoulder once kindly, yet firmly. Cas looked back at him. " _I will not lose another._ "

Cas's eyes became glassy and wide with disbelief. Gabriel stood and pulled him to his feet. The Winchesters, who sensed the tension change but didn't know what had happened, looked between one another.

Standing, Castiel could not contain his gratitude any longer. He sunk into his older brother's arms. "Thank you."

"Shut up."

When the brothers separated, Gabriel clapped his hand once on his shoulder and then turned to their audience.

"So, boys," he said to Sam and Dean, "Ma'am," to Mary. "Daddy-o tells me Luci's on the loose. Again."


End file.
